Observe and report

Disney actress Jennifer Stone was beyond excited when she found out she was going to sit at a desk for her latest role.

"It was pretty sad, like, everyone was laughing at me," she says.

The 17-year-old actress has acted in Disney productions for most of her teenage life, so never attended high school.

"Yeah, I missed the whole high school experience, but I figure I get to do it in movies so I can't complain," she says.

Stone rose to fame in Wizards of Waverly Place, the hit Disney Channel show that made Selena Gomez an E! channel favourite.

In Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars Stone plays Harriet Welsch, the star of the 1960s children's book by Louise Fitzhugh. This second screen adaptation comes with a modern twist - instead of a notepad, Harriet documents her observations on an online blog.

Stone's red-haired, and mostly red-clothed,character is up against a gutsy and prolific internet scribbler in her mission to become the official blogger for her high school class. Her nemesis gets a head start, so Harriet decides she needs to feature a celebrity in order to quickly elevate the popularity of her blog. Fortunately her dad just happens to be a big-wig movie producer, so it becomes a case of the girl with the coolest dad wins.

Despite it's contemporary update, Stone says it is still the classic story about being okay with who you are.

"It is a movie, so it has aspects to it that are a little grandiose but that's part of the fun. With the high school and all the mean girls, it's one of those things that as a girl, you go through."

And even though she has a cool dad, Harriet is a down-to-earth character who believes in her work.

"What a spy really is, is someone who watches people and observes. And that's what Harriet really is. She's a writer first and foremost but she writes about these people that she watches and learns more about," Stone says.

She agrees that blogs don't help contain bullying among teens. "It's another outlet for kids to attack each other, but then again with every new thing we have, some kids are going to find a way to use it for bad and others are going to use it for good."

LOWDOWN

Who: Disney actress Jennifer Stone
What: Appears with Selena Gomez in hit show Wizards of Waverly Place and is the lead in this week's Disney movie Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars
When and Where: Saturday, 6.30pm, Disney Channel.